Bad Books or wish I hadn't bothered!

Oh I LOVE Heart of Darkness. Such a critique of the evil at the heart of western colonialist societies.

GagaJo maybe you were my friend ?
I just couldn’t get along with it. Or the one about anarchists and spies. Maybe it was his style. I don’t know.

It’s not just the sameness - it’s the awfulness of the sameness as she shoehorns the most unbelievable nonsense into her storylines.

I’m going to stop my JP ranting now - I’m sounding a bit like some spurned crazed superfan out to wreak revenge.

Current book for our book club is 'The Color Purple'. Did not want to read it, but did and loved it. Other members were of a similar opinion.
The best thing about book clubs is that you get to read stuff you would never think of choosing, and then deciding whether you like it or not.
Read one Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum; loved it , but cannot get on with any of her other books at all..

Hard Times by Dickens
I wish the televised version had been around when I struggled with it for exams.

Wolf Hall, I'm sure it is excellent but I cannot bear any book written in the present tense.

And a frivolous load of nonsense which I bought for a friend who was laid up. She gave it back to me saying she had only managed 30 pages, sorry.
I managed 32.
I can't remember the title or author, sorry, have blanked them from my memory.

It was called Christmas in the Snow

It has lots of 5* reviews so it must be me. And my friend.

My neice ( well read teenager), her sister and her mother all raged about A Secret History by Donna Tartt. I forced myself to drag through it. I hated it, not one likable character and lots of intellectual snobbery. Perhaps it was just me as even Ruth Rendell thought it was good according to the dust sheet.I

Never happier to get it back to the library.

One that I’m glad I stuck with years ago is The Day Of The Jackal. The first chapter or so made no sense whatsoever, (this was before the film), but found it unputdownable as it progressed.

This thread is making me chuckle - people all saying the unsayable!

I loved the Secret History.

It is hard to remember titles of books I hated but I will try to later.

I didn't mind Secret History, but thought Little Friend and Goldfinch were much better.

Agree with the comments on JPs books. Not terrible, just underwhelming.

Also underwhelmed by Ann Cleeves, the one who writes about Scarpetta and PD James.

I think I've been spoiled by Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine.

I liked this snippet from today's Sunday Times , Matt Rudd writes, apropos of the virus'. lots of video conferencing from homes gave an insight into colleagues bookshelves. A financial analyst based in Guildford spent more time analysing colleagues' books than portfolios. "You shouldn't make character judgements" he says, "but I know that the guy I have worked with for nine years is a huge, huge fan of Dan Brown and the Twilight books. We can get over coronavirus, but I can never get over that"...........clearly a Jodi Piccoult moment

Reading through the last few comments, read Secret History years ago and enjoyed it, didn't like the one she wrote in the middle, but thought The Goldfinch was wonderful.

Also thought Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's books had a very special quality about them that no other crime writer ever nailed, for me at any rate. Occasionally wrote a few duds, but that's to be expected of any writer.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marquez
(Beautiful prose apparently according to pretentious friend)

Just turgid and boring
It wouldn't be a cheerful read at the moment, anyway.

I love C J Sansom as well tidyskate I enjoyed Tombland because my husband was born and bred in Norwich so it was interesting to him as well. The books are always so well researched.

Callistemon I have "A Hundred Years of Solitude" on my shelf by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, bought a long, long time ago, always with the intention of reading it, then I heard his books are somewhat heavy going. Anyway we are all living what seems like a 100 years of solitude at the moment unfortunately!

I should confess that I only managed 10 or 12 pages Terribull

Hated Wuethering Heights but loved Jane Eyre.Reread To Kill a Mocking Bird for my book club and forgot how much I’d liked it, read it first as a teenager. Love Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies , I’m looking forward to the last of the trilogy.

Hate anything by Austen but like Dickens . Modern books I didn’t like Gone Girl at all

We should be thankful for Fifty Shades & The Da Vinci Code. When loo paper runs out totally we can fall back on the above two titles as a substitute!

I only read the first chapter of Fifty Shades and decided that it was the worst written book ever.
A book that arrived in a book box for our book group is Strange Heart Beating by Eli Golding. I started it but, frankly, can't face finishing it. I would be surprised it anyone here had read it, but I remain to be corrected.

I am glad everyone else enjoyed The Secret History. I just thought all the characters were unlikable, even the main protagonist. No saving grades or optimism.

I do think it matters how old we are when we read a book.
For example, I loved Wuthering Heights when I was a teenager. I read it a few years ago and found all the characters were hateful. Heathcliffe is no Mr Rochester.

We studied Northanger Abbey for O Level and I have disliked Jane Austin ever since. I prefer the Brontes or Dickins.

SueDonim
Unfortunately long gone to the charity shop!

Not Fifty Shades as I have never read it.

However, DH does have Fifty Sheds of Grey

Greeneyedgirl. She gets a lift from my kindhearted friend who set the group up so comes along for the outing I guess.

Be careful with using Fifty Sheds, Callistemon - you don’t want to have to explain to the doctor exactly how you acquired splinters in your fundament.